Pick Your Poison
by Emerald-Latias
Summary: Long train trips require snacks and drinks. For those less prepared, this often means you're forced to try whatever concoction the dining car has to offer. For the 2017 Successor Challenge bonus round.


**Pick Your Poison**

 **Author's Note** – I literally started writing this at like 4pm. On a train. If it shows, my bad.

 **Summary** – Long train trips require snacks and drinks. For those less prepared, this often means you're forced to try whatever concoction the dining car has to offer. For the 2017 Successor Challenge bonus round.

-—-

"Squall?"

"…Yeah?"

"I…um, have some bad news."

He turned away from the window seat, only to see her peering into their shared duffle bag as if she was staring into the abyss. A solid moment had passed before she dared to reciprocate his gaze.

"I…think a few things were left on the dining room table." she sheepishly admitted. "We'll need to make a quick detour to a shop or two when we get to Timber."

"That's fine. What was forgotten?"

"Well, for starters…um, our unmentionables. And I think I might be missing a toothbrush too."

"Ok. What else?"

"…What do you mean, _what else?_ "

He traced out an invisible constellation from various points of interest from her current expression with his pointer finger. "Your face is telling me a different story. There's something important that can't be bought in Timber. Is your wallet at home?"

"No, I have that." she said, pausing slightly. "It's just that I…forgot our snacks."

Squall broke out in a rare smirk.

"…There's a dining car, Rinoa. We'll live."

The sorceress blew him a raspberry. "Glad you think it's fine, Mr. Iron Cast, Devour-Using Stomach. I've had food poisoning far too many times from bad train food to leave it to fate."

"Alright then, how about this," he proposed, "I will only buy pre-packaged food and offer to taste-test the coffee for poison. Sound reasonable?"

"It…does."

Squall got up from his seat and kissed the top of Rinoa's head before exiting the cabin. "Be back shortly."

-—-

Rinoa stared at the three small cups in the paper tray on her lap for a long while before looking up.

"…I thought you said you were going to taste test for poison, not bring some back."

Squall shrugged. "Didn't have much choice. They were out of regular coffee and all they had were the special themed lattes. Bought three because they only came in that size."

The sorceress looked down at the cups once more, scrutinizing the respective acid green, mustard yellow and electric blue liquids and noticing the sizeable amount of staining on the rims. Her stomach clenched a little at the thought of all the dye involved.

"So…the green one was a Carbuncle Latte, the yellow was a Siren Latte and the last was…um, Shiva?"

He sat down beside her. "Leviathan, actually."

"Weird. You'd think Shiva would be a more obvious name choice for a blue latte that doesn't tell you anything about what the flavour tastes like."

"They probably didn't want to confuse people by having two lattes named after GFs who resemble scantily-clad women."

"You have a point there. Though I still want to know why they're all named after GFs considering most people aren't really familiar with them."

"Someone probably thought the names sounded cool or trendy."

"You're probably right." she conceded before bending over to sniff out the individual flavours, only to come up with nothing distinguishable with all the scents intermingling because of the cups being so close in proximity to one another. When she righted herself, Squall reached in for the Carbuncle Latte.

Rinoa's line of sight travelled with the cup until he brought it to his lips and took a sip, she watched for any signs of distress and was relieved when all she could find was amusement.

"Matcha." he mouthed before casually taking another sip. "…It's on the sweeter side like the frappuccino version you get at the Balamb Café than a regular green tea latte. No poison detected."

"Good to know." she said, plucking out the Leviathan Latte from the tray to give to him while taking the Carbuncle he handed to her, slotting it back in the tray to even out the weight on her lap. She made a mental note to drink that one later once Squall was done his flight of lattes. And possibly tell him the corners of his mouth were now stained.

He raised the second cup to his lips and took a sip. This time, he did not take a second sip for good measure before giving it back to her.

"Blue."

Rinoa furrowed her brows as she took the cup. "Blue is not a flavour."

"All I could taste was sugar and dye. Don't know how else to describe it." he maintained. "No poison detected but it might make you sick for non-poison-related reasons."

Curiosity got the best of her and so she took a sip herself. A lightbulb went off the moment the flavour hit her tongue.

"This is cotton candy." she explained. A second lightbulb went off when she set the cup in the tray. "Wait…you've never had cotton candy before? Nothing that looks like coloured fluff on a stick?"

He shook his head. "Nothing that fits that description."

"I think we might have to fix that the next time a carnival is in town. I'm surprised Selphie hasn't ever exposed you to some since she took over the Garden Festival Committee though, seeing as cotton candy is a Trabian invention according to this trivia book I read awhile ago."

"Wouldn't be surprised if T-Garden didn't expose her to it in the first place considering how manic she can be in her natural state."

"…Touche, Squall. Touche."

Without much fanfare, the sorceress reached down for last latte for him to try, only to stop dead in her tracks once a nostalgic scent hit her nostrils when she pried the cup out.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

Rinoa shook her head. "Pulled a little too hard and nearly spilled it in my lap. Here you go." she lied, handing him the cup to deny herself the opportunity to act against her best interests and shotgun the cup's contents in one go.

If it was what she thought it was despite the off colouration…this would instantly make up for her packing fails tenfold. It had been so long since she'd had a Pumpkin Spice Latte. It was almost ironic how Balamb boasted a climate that was ideal for growing pumpkins but didn't at all because they celebrated none of the Galbadian traditions that would have popularized cultivating them.

With bated breath, she watched Squall take a sip from the last cup. Then had to bite her tongue from yelling at him when he took a second. After he took a third, he lowered the rim from his mouth to reveal that the smirk from earlier had returned. She had no doubt it owed to the pained expression on her face.

"The dining car attendant said there was plenty of _'Pumpkin Spice'_ Latte so you don't have to murder me if I take another sip." he dryly said. "The Matcha Latte is the one you might not get a second cup of if anything."

"…You seriously gave them fake names to mess with me?"

"Messing with you was just an unintended bonus." He handed it back to her, his smile waning a fraction. "I knew this was a favourite drink of yours and…I might have made up the names to get a chance to see what the fuss was all about under the guise of ignorance."

"You could have just asked me for a sip, you know." she pointed out. "But I can kinda see why you would feel the need to do that since PSLs have a reputation for being a _'girly Galbadian coffee drink'_ and people have this bad habit of making fun of those who try and/or like something like that but…that's a rant for another day. Would you like the rest of this? I'm thinking the Leviathan might be too much pure sugar for either of us and I might as well get a replacement cup sooner than later, seeing as we've determined that everything is edible and un-lethal."

"Sure."

Rinoa's stomach did a leap.

"So you liked it?"

"While it's not something I would drink every day because of the sweetness," he truthfully answered while taking back the cup, "…I can see why Galbadians are fond of pumpkin-flavoured things."

Rinoa smiled. "Need I remind you that you're technically Galbadian?"

"Doesn't count if you weren't indoctrinated in pumpkin culture." he countered as he took another sip. "This is just coincidence."

"Coincidence or not, I can assure you that we will get our fill in Timber. Gotta catch up for lost time after all."

Squall gave her a wry look. "Just remember we have to buy underwear and toiletries first. Pumpkins come second."

"I make no promises."

"I wouldn't expect you to."


End file.
